MostlyKaos

I'm beginning to assemble my Super Skybolt. I have read this entire thread. I have purchased an OS 91 (no pump).

Have any of you used the ball link control horns for the aileron set-up?

da Rock

The rigging I used for the Skybolt follows basic principles for any pushrod connections. I used the hardward provided, but as you can see in the picture, took only the horn part from the horns. I slotted the aileron and epoxied the part I used into the slot. The picture shows it all.

With that layout, the two connected ailerons will move exactly the same deflection when deflected. With the mfg's design, they do not. Not even uniformly up to down. It's all described in this thread near the start of it.

da Rock

I just found a picture I did when trying to explain the principles in later discussions. If you look at the lefthand picture at the red line, you see the required layout for rigging that will move both ailerons equally.

Your pushrod should make a right angle with the servo arm and with the aileron horn.

Every heard that? Well, the pushrod has to make a right angle with any arm or horn. If it doesn't, then you wind up with one end not deflecting as much or more than the other end.

The red line shows the path the rigging has to take to work uniformly for paired ailerons on a biplane with staggered wings. I think the picture shows the numbers I came up with for my first ARF biplane. The Skybolt isn't the first to be marketed with whatever hardware the ARF mfg thought might work and threw in the box.

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Da Rock,

Does your setup help with more axial rolls? What are the advantages to your set up?

Vinnie6

Finally, some pix. I moved the tank forward toward the firewall so I could drop it. I was able to lower the tank about an inch to help alleviate any fuel flooding problems with the inverted setup. This also gave me more space for onboard glow and radio gear. I can switch the on-board glow on and off with the Tx. When it is on, I have it set up to kick on at about 1/3 throttle on down. It idles great with the on-board glow turned on. Yes, it will idle without it too, but it seems to want to load up a little. I will fuss with the carb a little more. My final weight was 8 lb, 0.5 oz. A little heavy, but not too bad considering I have a second firewall glued in (see post #404) and the onboard glow setup, which includes a separate battery. It is balanced at 5" from the le of the top wing. Right in front of the rear wing screw. Notice the DaRock aileron setup. The throws between the top and bottom wing are IDENTICAL!! Thanks, DaRock. It has not flown yet. Waiting for good weather.

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

Pic's look good. Nice set up.

Vinnie6

Well, I maidened my Super Skybolt last Sunday. Put three very successful flights on it. I took it very conservative because I had not yet flown anything more than a foamie yet this year. It took a few clicks of up elev. That was it for trimming. Balance seems good at 5" behind leading edge of top wing. It's definitely not tail heavy. My inverted Saito setup with on-board glo and the fuel tank dropped as low as it will go (about 1" below stock location) worked flawlessly. No glitches at all with the Spektrum AR7000 and JR X9303. I have "triple rates". Positions 1 and 2 match low and high rates from the skybolt manual. Position 3 is as much travel as I could get. I left it in position 2 most of the time.

I am anxious to fly it more and get more comfortable with it. My first impression is definitely a good one. I'll try to remember the camera next time I take it out.

da Rock

The 8lb 1/2oz is really not heavy for the airplane. It earned it's reputation as an outstanding airplane as a kit that finished at about 10lbs and flew excellently with a 60 two-cycle.

Your pictures show the work of someone who's done more than one model in his time. The extra care you took with some details looks excellent.

nilsreinert123

Very nice plane ,i have a saito 72 ,would it be good for this plane ?

opjose

The 4C .72 would be far too anemic for it.

A .91 4C is recommended, and many people go up from that.

silver.kiwi

I power mine with a Saito FA-80 and it is more than adequate. Of course mine is strictly stock and not loaded down with extras.......smoke, double firewalls and the like. It weighs 7 lbs. 9 oz. and really does perform nicely. My engine is quite old but when new was advertised as equal to the four stroke .90's of the day. It will turn an 12 X 6 APC 10.900 rpm static, so unloaded in the air it is probably very close to the max rpm of 11,500. I believe your .72 would fly the plane but you certainly would be at the bottom of the power curve. Hope this helps.

silver.kiwi

Has anyone following this thread experienced radio interference with this ARF? I have a problem with mine that has me stumped. I have only a few flights on my Skybolt, but have on several occasions experienced a sudden, hard pitch down in the elevator channel. Ground range checks are normal and I have changed receivers with the same results occuring. I use the transmitter for several different aircraft and have no problem with them. My receiver, antenna, battery, and servos are all mounted in accordance with the construction manual. I wondered if the antenna routing, which is under and parallel to the steel pushrods could be the cause?

MJJ

Funny I should see this post now. I had this happen to me on takeoff yesterday. A foot in the air and it dove into the ground! After going over everything, I have to conclude it was not ready to fly and stalled. I horsed it off too soon with gusty wind. I know I was not at full throttle, the field was still rough from the winter and my foam wheels were in pretty bad shape. I rebuilt during the day (only the prop and a bent gear thank goodness) and flew successfully that afternoon.

I have heard from our local hobby shop that the early 6000 series Spektrum receivers had an issue with uncommanded down elevator but I am running an AR7000 and have never had an issue.

My Skybolt is electric. I use an EFlite 60 with two 3S, 4200ma packs in series and can get 10 minutes of flying with mild aerobatics. I usually make a 6 minute flight and then a 5 minute flight and still have power to spare. This is my first biplane and I really love it.

You might also check your elevator servo for a bad gear tooth.

Mike

opjose

The plane itself has nothing in it that would cause any sort of RF problem.

You didn't mention what TX/RX you have in your plane...

What you discribe sounds very much like a RF "glitch", interference on your channel.

If you are using 72mhz, remember that pager towers, WiFi and portable hands free phones can all cause your plane to glitch.

At our field there are two areas that are close enough to a house, ( with WIFi ) that planes on 72mHz will often glitch as they approach these areas in the pattern.

Changing frequencies helps, as does the use of dual conversion RX's.

For DSM, check the adversories on the Futaba gear about the radio shutting down due to a low voltage condition, that can be triggered by servo draw on the battery.

silver.kiwi

The TX/RX are Futaba T6EXAP and R168DF dual conversion. The battery is a new Sanyo 1100mah 4 cell pack driveing the receiver and servos. I have tried two different receivers and both have the same problem. Our field is far out in farm land with no near by transmission towers or homes. I use the same TX for 3 other models and have used both receivers in other planes without a problem. Beats me?????

opjose

What you should do is take the plane out to that same field.

The put it on the ground approximately where it glitched on you... ( better yet if you have a stand that will keep it off the ground, put it on the stand ).

Now walk out to about 30% further away from where you were and try again moving the controls with the engine both on and off.

This will help to see if you have an environmental RF problem.

-

Now that said...

I've had a few HiTec servos, that had a nasty habit of "glitching" due RF noise from the engine.

A couple were so bad, that when the engine hit a specific RPM range, the rudder would start moving all over the place by itself.

The problem always traveled with the specific servo, and the RF noise from the engine was actually very low...

I swapped out the bad servos for another set of identical ones and the problems went away.

I changed nothing else...

I also did not have a metal link on the throttle...


You may want to try to replace the elevator servo, just in case.

Save the suspect one, and test it on another plane, say on the rudder ( which will be far less important if it glitches in flight ).

k4nkc

All Skybolt Pilots:
AD (Aircraft Directive). Check your servo tray glue joints and reglue and/or beef up.
Don't ask how I found out mine had come loose.

summerwind

that was one of the first things i did before i even started assembling.......................and for that matter, trusting any factory joints that are stress related is insane.

zaboaa

Finishing up my skybolt have a couple ?s. Have a O.S. FS-91 II Surpass w/Pump on order, thinking maybe I should go with the Saito 1.25. I want as little hassle as possible with the installation (I am referring to modifications, I'm fairly new to this stuff). What kind of mods need to be done to install the 1.25? OR is there a better fit in that size engine for the Skybolt? Does anyone run the 91 with the pump, how is it? Also, messed up one of the aileron servo hatches (peeling so applied heat=major shrinkage). Saw this talked about earlier, has anyone found an adequate replacement? Finally, has anyone used the 91 with the pump with the build just like the instructions (read battery not up front)? If so what did the CG end up being? Thanks..

opjose

I'm using the FS .91 4C.

The instructions are designed with this in mind and the installation when pretty easily as a result.

Your Pumped version should be no different.

The Saito would give it more power but it would balance about the same.

The plane comes out a bit nose heavy at the indicated C.G.

It flies WELL this way, but I ended up moving the battery to the rear of the canopy to bring the C.G. back an addition 1/2" or so. Even still it could go back a bit more.

MostlyKaos

Regardin the servo mounting, how flush are your wing servo panels? I sanded down the mounting blocks a little because they prevented the assembly from drpping in far enough, but my panels are not perfectly flush. Wonder if this would make a difference (not flush). Also, the covering in this area is peeling alot, so that is why I quit sanding and handling the assembly and secured them as is.

CustomPC

I had an OS .91 Surpass II in my skybolt and just upgraded it to a Saito 125.

Installation of either engine is an easy task but the Saito requires a lot more cowl cutting.

Performance wise, if you can go with the Saito do it.

The 91 pulls the Skybolt nicely but it does run out of puff in the verticals and i found myself using WOT most of the time. I was using 14x6 - 7 and a 15x6 prop.
The Saito was not massively overpowered like i imagined. I only tried a 15x8 prop but I could cruise around at half throttle and use full for the verticals and it made my aerobatics better. The model seems to track much better.

zaboaa

Just to verify, this is the engine you are talking about?

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...rodID=SAIE125A

Couple ?'s:

Also I assume the engine mounts do not need to be modified?

Is the throttle linkage OK or does it require some tweaking?

Did you strengthen the firewall? If not has your stock ARF firewall held up without issue?

Dumb Noob ?, WOT? what does that mean?

Thanks for the help.

Mark

opjose

They were not perfectly flush, but even if they jut out the height of the plastic, it will not make any difference to the performance of the plane.

da Rock

Wide Open Throttle